Boruto anime has provided hopes of Kawaki arc releasing in the near future to scores of fans by casting a voice actor for the role of Jigen, the leader of Kara.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations recently finished adapting the Mujina bandits arc, which received a good response from the fans who had been fed of the fillers the anime had been doling for some time. While many argue that the anime is adding more details to the worldbuilding and giving the side characters more of a presence in the story, there are many who strongly disagree with how the story is progressing.

There were hopes that Boruto anime would continue adapting canon content from the manga after the Mujina bandits arc, however, the anime started rolling out fillers again. This kept the fans wondering if they’d have to wait another year before getting to see the Kawaki arc animated. However, the announcement of Jigen’s voice actor has given the fans hope.

Kenjiro Tsuda Cast As Voice Actor For Jigen:

While the announcement is yet to be made official, a report on social media broke the news that Kenjiro Tsuda has been confirmed as the voice actor of Jigen. The veteran voice actor has a strong resume having previously voiced characters in My Hero Academia (Kai Chisaki/Overhaul), Attack on Titan (Hannes), Free! (Seijiro Mikoshiba), Yu Gi Oh! (Seto Kaiba) and other anime. He has also voiced Lero- Ro from the currently ongoing anime Tower of God.

The fact that a voice actor (Kenjiro Tusda) got hired means that Studio Pierrot has started animating the Ao arc and Kawaki arc from the manga which features Jigen and the other prominent members from Kara including Kashin Kojin. This means that Boruto: Naruto Next Generations could start airing the Ao arc episodes within two or three months assuming that the effects of the novel coronavirus don’t delay the production schedule much. 

The Ao Arc and Kawaki arc are closely related, there won’t be much room for senseless fillers one the anime starts adapting these arcs. Ao arc covers chapters 16 to 23 and the Kawaki arc which followed the Ao arc is still ongoing in the Manga. As of April, Boruto Manga has released 44 chapters. New chapters are serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump every month. The latest chapters can be read for free on Viz.com. 

While there is hope for fans, Pierrot could also choose to air upto six months of filler content (also called anime canon) so that the manga can further the plot even more, before starting to air the Ao arc or Kawaki arc. While its true that Pierrot currently doesn’t have much of a content to work on, they could at least steer the show in the right direction (like they adapted some anime canon episodes revolving around the Mujina bandits arc) and start going deeper into the secrets of the karma seal that Boruto received from Momoshiki.